Steelers looking to stop Lewis

The Ravens running back has never had a 100-yard game against the Steelers.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- If Baltimore's Jamal Lewis is to break the NFL's single-season rushing record, he must do something he's never done since joining the Ravens in 2000.
Namely, have a 100-yard game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Lewis has 23 100-yard games, including his league record 295 yards against Cleveland this season. None of the 23 were against the Steelers, who have held him to an average of 59.6 yards in five games.
"The best way to take Jamal Lewis out of the game is to get a lead -- (so) the option to run is not an option," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "If they get a lead and he starts to pound, he gets stronger as the game goes along."
Those are the situations, Steelers defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen said, when Lewis "will go for 3, 4, 5 (yards), then 75."
"That (the big run) is something we want to prevent," he said. "We want to keep him off the field as much as possible, because with Jamal Lewis chasing that record, they're probably going to give him the ball 40 times."
Even if the Browns (4-11) upset the Bengals (8-7) and the Ravens (9-6) don't need to beat Pittsburgh (6-9) on Sunday night to win the AFC North, Ravens coach Brian Billick said Lewis will play.
Looking for milestone
Lewis needs 48 yards to become the fifth 2,000-yard rusher in NFL history and 154 to break former Rams star Eric Dickerson's 1984 league record of 2,105 yards. Lewis has been held to 48 yards or fewer in two of his previous five games against Pittsburgh.
One reason is the Ravens have rarely been in the lead against Pittsburgh, losing five straight to them and six of seven.
"Since I've been here and playing Baltimore, we've been reading the runs right," linebacker Kendrell Bell said. "He's a downhill runner. When he's lateral, he's not as good a runner as when he's coming downhill."
Don't think the Steelers won't be counting every Lewis yard, even though they have little incentive for winning other than avoiding their second double-digit loss season in five seasons.
"Our defense really wants to go out and shut them down so he doesn't get the record against them," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "But it's going to be a challenge. Playing in Baltimore is tough, and their fans will be rallying behind them."
The Steelers have won six in a row in Baltimore, but they never had been eliminated from the playoffs going into any of those games.
Steelers running back Jerome Bettis (12,299 yards in his career) also is shooting for the record book, needing 14 yards to move past Jim Brown into sixth place in NFL career rushing.
Bettis admires how Lewis runs with speed and power, but won't concede he's had the best season by any NFL runner even if he breaks the record.
"I would say O.J. Simpson, because he did it (rushed for 2,003 yards in 1973) in a 14-game season," Bettis said. "If you're looking at the best single season, I think O.J. Simpson definitely. That year he had three 200-yard games in a row."
Of course, neither the Steelers nor the Ravens are very interested in saying much good about the other, given the intensity of the rivalry that's built since the former Cleveland Browns relocated to Baltimore before the 1996 season.